GORGONIA. 209 
living flesh was doubtless a British sponge which had grown 
round the branches in many parts.” 
If we must give up this magnificent Gorgonia as British, 
it is a consolation that it will continue to be more familiar 
to us than’ any of acknowledged British growth. It is so 
strikingly curious and handsome that it attracts the notice 
of our sailors, who are not in general remarkably prone to 
admire the works of nature; but this stares them so broadly 
in the face that they are constrained to observe it, and they 
often bring it home as a present to their friends, scarcely 
one of them knowing that it is an animal production, but 
regarding it is an extraordinary kind of seaweed. Since I 
began to write this, I have had a very pretty specimen of it 
brought to me by a little girl, and I had two or three from 
my kind nautical friends before. 
The wisdom of God, as our great British naturalist, Ray, 
has observed, is shown in the fan-like form which many 
marine plants and zoophytes are taught to assume. In the 
present case the safety of the polypidom is promoted, not 
only by the thin edge being fitted to cleave the waves, but 
even when the broad side happens to be exposed to the im- 
pulse, the waves pass through without doing it much injury, 
the inosculations of the branches causing it to resemble net- 
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